People across the nation are calling for Congress to pass immigrant reform bills before the end of the year.

The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, or DREAM Act, is currently pending in Congress. Along with the Student Adjustment Act, the act would allow children of illegal immigrants to attend college.

"It would legalize the status of an estimated 65,000 immigrant high school students who graduate every year," said Christine Neumann-Ortiz, the director of Voces de la Frontera, a group that helps migrant workers and illegal immigrants.

The DREAM Act has garnered support among Republicans in the U.S. Senate, but the Student Adjustment Act remains in the House Judiciary committee, which is chaired by Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.).

The acts have been in Congress for three years, according to State Rep. Pedro Colón (D-Milwaukee) of the 8th Wisconsin Assembly District.

Congress will go into recess Oct. 8 and reconvene after the Nov. 2 general election, said Katie Brookby, a staff assistant for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.).

After the election, Congress will work on whatever pending legislation is left, she said.

The Student Adjustment Act is not scheduled to be worked on, according to a spokesperson in the office of the House Judiciary Committee.

Locally, Colón has proposed a bill in the state legislature that would offer in-state tuition for immigrants under the University of Wisconsin system.

Several states already have in-state tuition for the children of illegal immigrants, Colón said. The states include Illinois, Texas, New York and California, according to the Center for Policy Alternatives Web site.

In Milwaukee, a rally for "We Support the DREAM Act" was held in front of St. James Episcopal Church Saturday.

Participants held a mock funeral for the acts, in which students wore graduation caps and gowns and wrote messages to the House Judiciary committee and put them in the coffin, Neumann-Ortiz said.

"Basically the message was: we didn't want to see the dreams of immigrant students deferred onto another generation," she said.

The event was not associated with Marquette, according to Pamela Peters, coordinator for student organizations and leadership in the Office of Student Development.

Alexis Cazco, a freshman at Mount Mary College and a work-study student at Voces de la Frontera, served as a pallbearer at the mock funeral.

"I'm Hispanic too, (and) I'm a permanent resident, so I wanted to support the people who need legality," Cazco said. "It was a great opportunity to show the power of our heritage."

In more than 20 states, people began fasting Friday to urge Congress to pass the legislation by the end of the year, according to Neumann-Ortiz. These people, including 63 fasters in Milwaukee, broke their fast Saturday.

"We believe that education is a human right and it should not be denied to anyone," Neumann-Ortiz said.

Not everyone favors the bill.

"We're opposed to it," said Jack Martin, the special projects director for the Federation for American Immigrant Reform. "We think that any legislation that accommodates the status of people who are in the country illegally encourages illegal immigration. We also think there are equity questions for American students and legal residents."

Colón said the bill is fair to students who can't go to college.

"Anybody who lives in the world of immigration really understands this is a good bill," Colón said. The children "are educated in this country under our system, and they do well under this system, and then under some arbitrary rule they are denied access to more education."

Martin said there is a 1996 federal law requiring any schools that give in-state tuition to the children of illegal immigrants to open up tuition to American students from any other state in the same way.